According to Swedish scientists, it is a big problem that Swedes are presented as white in advertisements

Swedish researchers and media monitoring organizations drew attention to the "lack of diversity and discriminatory portrayal" in Swedish advertising.

A joint project of several universities has shown that white people predominate in Swedish tourism advertisements, which, according to the researchers, does not reflect the real composition of society and hinders inclusivity, the Swedish news portal Samnytt wrote

The study pointed out that certain groups, such as immigrants from the Middle East, are almost completely ignored in advertising, despite the fact that they are a significant part of the Swedish population, the article was seen by the V4na.com .

As an example, they cite Malmö's Möllevangstorget, a multicultural area whose advertisements feature almost exclusively white people and a negligible proportion of Middle Eastern immigrants. Sayaka Osanami Törngren, associate professor at Malmö University, emphasized that

advertisements should reflect real social diversity.

The research also found that Asian people are often portrayed in education-related advertisements,

while advertisements for foreign tourists typically show white, nuclear families.

Attention was also drawn to the inequality in the media. Research by an organization called Mediekompaniet has shown that

the Swedish media is dominated by middle-aged, white men, which, according to the organization, is not only unfair, but also harmful to democratic dialogue and the broader reach of the media.

A cosmetics company, Kicks, for example, came under fire after it showed a woman's skin in "before-and-after" pictures, where the "after" picture depicted a lighter skin tone and the text emphasized that the woman's skin had never been like this. beautiful. The advertising ombudsman described the ad as discriminatory because it gave the impression that lighter skin was more desirable.

Kicks defended that the images were taken at different times and under different circumstances and that they never intended to portray lighter skin as an ideal. Nevertheless, the Advertising Ombudsman maintained its decision. The company has introduced new image editing guidelines, which aim to avoid retouched content.

Cover photo: MTI/AP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert